Budget hotels discussion

[Bletchleyite]

I do wonder why there is such variation between individual nights prices. Sundays I can understand as 'weekenders' have stayed Friday & Saturday and gone home Sunday whilst 'working weekday business' is still at home but Mondays and Thursdays regularly seem to be cheap. Are the prices set to tempt people to stay an extra night and make a longer weekend of it? I take advantage and do lots of Monday only or Thursday only stays.

Thursdays are usually very cheap as business travellers have gone home (Friday from home is pretty much universal for weekly commuters and the likes now) and tourists not arrived yet. Second cheapest is Sunday, but you do get some people doing a long weekend onto the Monday so it's not quite as cheap as Thursday. Psychologically fewer people seem to do a long weekend Thurs-Sun than Fri-Mon.

You can also see this effect in Advance fare availability on trains, particularly on the LNER fare increase trial routes. Thursday afternoons are now very expensive!

 

[TheSmiths82]

I think Manchester probably more than any city outside of London is effected by effects. It has a stupid amount of hotels which means if it is mid week and there isn't much happening the rooms can be very cheap but as soon as there are a couple of events on the prices climb. Saturdays are always very expensive. I find Manchester has enough hotels that one event at the Arena probably only bumps prices up a bit, but through the Co-Op and football into the mix and that is when it gets very expensive. Even the suburbs get expensive.

Talking of the York Micklegate Travelodge I stayed there recently for the night but wanted to go to the railway museum so I ended up paying to check in early. The room was in need of redecorating. It ended up costing me £80 for the nigh with the early check in but that was with cancellation too. It was a Monday but but that is the most I would really want to pay, anymore than that I would just to go to a different city.

 

[route101]

York is one of them places where the budget hotels command high prices, you see it in touristy places in Scotland too.
I have managed to find good prices for Manchester at short notice. The football makes the prices shoot up.

 

[TheSmiths82]

York is one of them places where the budget hotels command high prices, you see it in touristy places in Scotland too.
I have managed to find good prices for Manchester at short notice. The football makes the prices shoot up.

I struggle with Edinburgh too, it is a shame I love the city but I can rarely justify going but even Glasgow was very expensive mid week. I ended up settling on Newcastle as it was just £30 a night.

 

[ChrisC]

York is one of them places where the budget hotels command high prices, you see it in touristy places in Scotland too.
I have managed to find good prices for Manchester at short notice. The football makes the prices shoot up.

Hotel prices in some tourist areas of Scotland have really increased in recent years. I’m going up to Dundee tomorrow for a week. I’m planning to visit St. Andrews and walk some of the Fife Coast path visiting the fishing villages. It’s one of the few parts of Scotland I’ve never been to. Hotel prices in St Andrews and on the Fife Coast were ridiculously high and so I’m staying at the Holiday Inn Express not far from the bus station in Dundee. It was half the price of hotels in St Andrews. Unfortunately the weather is not looking too good up there over the next week.

 

[styles]

I struggle with Edinburgh too, it is a shame I love the city but I can rarely justify going but even Glasgow was very expensive mid week. I ended up settling on Newcastle as it was just £30 a night.

Try Edinburgh during festival season. People will rent out their gardens for camping for a hundred pounds a night.

 

[BuhSnarf]

I'm surprised the venerable "Britannia Hotels" hasn't been brought up in this thread. You can often get rooms at less than £50 in these hotels, often with leisure facilities and some of the hotels are absolutely massive, previously grand buildings. Many have seen much better days.

But I've stayed in a few now and found that they're a lot better than they used to be and actually sometimes a better bet than a PI/Travelodge.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'm surprised the venerable "Britannia Hotels" hasn't been brought up in this thread. You can often get rooms at less than £50 in these hotels, often with leisure facilities and some of the hotels are absolutely massive, previously grand buildings. Many have seen much better days.

But I've stayed in a few now and found that they're a lot better than they used to be and actually sometimes a better bet than a PI/Travelodge.

Wouldn't touch them and their business model with a bargepole. I hugely prefer the consistency of PI/TL, and the 10am checkout time belongs in about 1975, though I believe they have deigned to allow 11 on weekends in some places now it is still a bit off given that they don't even offer guaranteed late checkout for a fee.

 

[Djgr]

I'm surprised the venerable "Britannia Hotels" hasn't been brought up in this thread. You can often get rooms at less than £50 in these hotels, often with leisure facilities and some of the hotels are absolutely massive, previously grand buildings. Many have seen much better days.

But I've stayed in a few now and found that they're a lot better than they used to be and actually sometimes a better bet than a PI/Travelodge.

Voted worst UK hotel chain 12 years running.

 

[The exile]

Voted worst UK hotel chain 12 years running.

Which makes you wonder how they survive, really. Combination of unknowing tourists and asylum-seekers?

 

[Howardh]

Which makes you wonder how they survive, really. Combination of unknowing tourists and asylum-seekers?

Cheap!!

 

[BuhSnarf]

From my stays at some of the nicer Britannia hotels I've found that they are often used by coach holidays as it offers a room, breakfast and evening meal plus bar / entertainment etc. for a rock bottom price for a block booking. This plus proms/weddings/conferences etc. I think is how they stay in business.

I certainly wouldn't stay in any of the city centre locations, but the ones in the 'countryside' I've stayed at have been actually quite nice. Even reviewed a couple for my channel as I thought they'd be awful, but was pleasantly surprised.

 

[TheSmiths82]

I have stayed in the one in Brighton a couple of times, it is now sadly burnt down but one of the rooms was the worst I ever stayed in any hotel ever. It was awful. The other room I got was actually decent. I have also stayed in The Royal in Scarborough twice which is actually nicely refurbished to a good standard but they lock the doors at 10:00 (or is 11:00) and you have to then ring them to get back in. That puts me off them ever going again.

I have also stayed in the the one that used to the Hilton in Blackpool, that was actually a decent hotel but in need of refurbishment. At one point it was probably the poshest hotel in Blackpool. Then there is the Norbreck Castle complete with the ceiling that was falling down in my room. I avoid them now unless it is very very cheap and in a perfect location.

 

[route101]

While I do look at other hotels other than PI or TL for short trips, more often than not I am arriving late and leaving early. I feel at times hotels with more facilties are wasted on me.

 

[Bletchleyite]

While I do look at other hotels other than PI or TL for short trips, more often than not I am arriving late and leaving early. I feel at times hotels with more facilties are wasted on me.

Simply enabling this is a good reason to use them. Plenty of small hotels have very limited check in times.

 

[Iskra]

Thursdays are usually very cheap as business travellers have gone home (Friday from home is pretty much universal for weekly commuters and the likes now) and tourists not arrived yet. Second cheapest is Sunday, but you do get some people doing a long weekend onto the Monday so it's not quite as cheap as Thursday. Psychologically fewer people seem to do a long weekend Thurs-Sun than Fri-Mon.

You can also see this effect in Advance fare availability on trains, particularly on the LNER fare increase trial routes. Thursday afternoons are now very expensive!

Sunday is well known to be the cheapest night in the hotel industry. There is some residual business demand on a Thursday, but I agree it is the quietest midweek day. The busiest nights are now Saturday, Tuesday and Wednesday with Monday night being a bit inconsistent. Wednesday is now a very popular day for business meetings.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Apr 2026 ==

York is one of them places where the budget hotels command high prices, you see it in touristy places in Scotland too.
I have managed to find good prices for Manchester at short notice. The football makes the prices shoot up.

Anyone with sense would stay in Leeds and get the train and still be quids in.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Apr 2026 ==

Wouldn't touch them and their business model with a bargepole. I hugely prefer the consistency of PI/TL, and the 10am checkout time belongs in about 1975, though I believe they have deigned to allow 11 on weekends in some places now it is still a bit off given that they don't even offer guaranteed late checkout for a fee.

Agreed, Britannia are a rotten company.

 

[Steddenm]

Agreed, Britannia are a rotten company.

Britannia have recently changed the name of some of their hotels to an "Elite Collections" sub-brand and these seem like they have been refurbished.

The Brighton hotel that had an fire (make of that what you will) and partly demolished, has Elite Hotels branding on the hoardings as it is being rebuilt. The Grand Hotel in Blackpool (the former Hilton) is also part of this brand.

Agreed, the Britannia Hotels Group are a terrible company and their management team are horrific (they sacked everyone at a hotel in Scotland during the pandemic which also made them homeless) and the same at the International Hotel in Canary Wharf when they turned it over up asylum accommodation. A lot of their Hotels have these type of "guests" at the moment, whilst some are closed to the public, others aren't, and the reviews of these are awful.

 

[philjo]

I keep seeing Travelodge adverts at the top of the screen when viewing this thread.!

York is one of them places where the budget hotels command high prices, you see it in touristy places in Scotland too.
I have managed to find good prices for Manchester at short notice. The football makes the prices shoot up.

York has year round tourists so there isn’t really an off season. Avoid race days!
When I was looking to stay in York last year it was half term and found it was a lot cheaper to stay in Harrogate and less busy.

 

[D6130]

I struggle with Edinburgh too, it is a shame I love the city but I can rarely justify going but even Glasgow was very expensive mid week. I ended up settling on Newcastle as it was just £30 a night.

Top tip: Stay at the Travelodge in Stirling - less than five minutes walk from the station - and commute into Edinburgh or Glasgow by train.

Hotel prices in some tourist areas of Scotland have really increased in recent years. I’m going up to Dundee tomorrow for a week. I’m planning to visit St. Andrews and walk some of the Fife Coast path visiting the fishing villages. It’s one of the few parts of Scotland I’ve never been to. Hotel prices in St Andrews and on the Fife Coast were ridiculously high and so I’m staying at the Holiday Inn Express not far from the bus station in Dundee. It was half the price of hotels in St Andrews. Unfortunately the weather is not looking too good up there over the next week.

Top tip for St Andrews: If visiting during the university holidays, stay in student halls of residence....much cheaper than most of the hotels.

 

[STINT47]

I would not touch Britania even if they offered to pay me to stay with them.

The reputation of the brand is so poor in my mind to even consider them as an option. If they are trying to improve the hotels and brand then they have s lot of hard work ahead.

 

[styles]

I would not touch Britania even if they offered to pay me to stay with them.

The reputation of the brand is so poor in my mind to even consider them as an option. If they are trying to improve the hotels and brand then they have s lot of hard work ahead.

I once had someone at work book me into the Britannia hotel in Nottingham. What an absolute dive. It was so popular for sex trafficking that they required passports (or maybe other photo ID) from all residents. I know in theory hotels are meant to take this for overseas visitors but I have only one other time in the UK experienced it applied as a blanket policy including UK nationals.

The next time I had a hotel stay in Nottingham I explicitly asked for anywhere but the Britannia!

 

[SuspectUsual]

I would not touch Britania even if they offered to pay me to stay with them.

I wouldn't touch them. Stayed in one years ago when my eldest son was a toddler and the z-bed (which the hotel staff had assembled) he was in closed itself on him during the night and nearly killed him. The staff were utterly uninterested, offered no apology, and basically shrugged at me when I complained. Their head office were just as bad. Never since, and never again

 

[BuhSnarf]

I once had someone at work book me into the Britannia hotel in Nottingham. What an absolute dive. It was so popular for sex trafficking that they required passports (or maybe other photo ID) from all residents. I know in theory hotels are meant to take this for overseas visitors but I have only one other time in the UK experienced it applied as a blanket policy including UK nationals.

The next time I had a hotel stay in Nottingham I explicitly asked for anywhere but the Britannia!

Oh yes, the Nottingham one is notoriously poor! I wouldn't touch the city centre ones with a barge pole! I've stayed there once many, many moons ago and it felt both unsafe and dirty and from what I can tell it's only got worse.

Although, saying that I have been to the Manchester Airport 60's concrete block that overlooks the Princess Parkway as it offered a deal where you could stay the night before flying and included 7 days of parking for £60, that's insane as most of the other parking companies were charging more than that just for the parking. I think they only charge a fiver as well for each extra days parking. There is a shuttle bus for £15 return, but you can just walk 5 minutes up the road and get the 43 night bus to the airport which is what we did. Pretty unbeatable bargain that was. And in fairness this hotel was absolutely fine, we got allocated a room on the top floor with decent views towards Manchester and it was on par with a basic Travelodge.

But certainly the ones I've been to at Royal Court (Coventry), Bosworth Hall (Leicester) and Palace Hotel (Buxton) were all surprisingly good. I mean, I wouldn't pay more than £50-60 a night and you can usually get a deal where breakfast is part of the room rate - but for that price getting a gym/bar/pool etc. I do enjoy a nice dip in a pool in the morning and the variety of rooms you get means you can sometimes mean I've ended up paying £40 for a double room and ended up getting a massive suite with views overlooking the gardens. These tend to be under the Elite Venue Collection which I think they're using to distance themselves from the Britannia brand!

 

[Howardh]

One plus for Travelodge is you can pay a small supplement and check in after 12 noon, which helps if you are attending an afternoon event, saves coming the day before and having to pay an extra night! not sure how many other budget chains offer that, looked at Premier Inn but no such facility that I could find.

 

[takno]

One plus for Travelodge is you can pay a small supplement and check in after 12 noon, which helps if you are attending an afternoon event, saves coming the day before and having to pay an extra night! not sure how many other budget chains offer that, looked at Premier Inn but no such facility that I could find.

PI have that in most hotels. It might only appear as an option after you make the booking.

 

[Bletchleyite]

PI have that in most hotels. It might only appear as an option after you make the booking.

They only offer a certain number of guaranteed early checkins based on how many rooms they think they will have ready. If sold out they won't appear. You can otherwise turn up and try, but no guarantees (and the way their room allocations work it won't be about whether ANY room is available, it will be about whether YOUR room is - staff are very reluctant to swap rooms round, I guess it must be quite complex to do so on their system, though a few will do it).

What TL offer that PI don't is paid late checkout until 2pm. Ibis even sometimes offer it until 5 which can be very useful!

 

[Howardh]

PI have that in most hotels. It might only appear as an option after you make the booking.

Thanks - that sems rather the wrong way round as if I don't know there's early x-in I won't book and look elsewhere!

 

[takno]

Thanks - that sems rather the wrong way round as if I don't know there's early x-in I won't book and look elsewhere!

It's one of those things which most chains (likely including Travelodge) don't actually guarantee even when you pay. If you haven't picked a specific room then it's 90% likely the room will be ready by the time you actually show up. If it isn't though, they only want to refund the early check-in fee rather than the full cost. If it's an optional add on after purchase then that's a slightly easier argument for them to make.

 

[High Dyke]

I would not touch Britania even if they offered to pay me to stay with them.

The reputation of the brand is so poor in my mind to even consider them as an option. If they are trying to improve the hotels and brand then they have s lot of hard work ahead.

I agree. A few years ago myself and a number of work colleagues all met up in Birmingham for a night out. Most of them had booked the Brittania Hotel (New Street), so we all decided to meet there first. I was staying elsewhere, but found vagrants asleep in the hotel foyer and bar area when I arrived. The staff did nothing to eject them. Seemingly the hotel had double booked members of our party and most were relocated to other city centre hotels.

I thought that experience was a one-off, but after visiting other hotels in that group I have a poor opinion of them. That said, other major chains also have their good and bad points.

 

[STINT47]

It's one of those things which most chains (likely including Travelodge) don't actually guarantee even when you pay. If you haven't picked a specific room then it's 90% likely the room will be ready by the time you actually show up. If it isn't though, they only want to refund the early check-in fee rather than the full cost. If it's an optional add on after purchase then that's a slightly easier argument for them to make.

When I arrived at a PI and my early check in wasn't available I got told not to worry we can store your case whilst you go into town.

Whilst this was appreciated the staff seemed to think that this resolved the situation. Err what about the extra money that I paid for early check in and an apology?